Monday, September 05, 2005

I've been teaching an introductory storytelling class and typical for summer, the group is small. Once a week, we gather together for the students to share the story they've been working on each week. It's a lot of fun. We videotape the tellers and use that for self and group feedback.

Last week, my students (who are actually all high school students this time around) each tackled a large traditional story. Although we don't assign stories, they all came back with a very similar type of story. For example, one of the more reticent students took on "Lady and the Tiger" to tell and experience. Each of these young people did a great job telling, self evaluating and giving feedback to each other. For some of the students, the last class was a grand experience in getting past fear and hesitancy and simply jumping into experience of public storytelling. I love being a storyteller and I think that I love teaching even more.

My <b> Tip of the Week</b> for you this week is: JUMP IN. I've used this tip before and I will use it again. If you want to be a storyteller, tell stories. As a painter is not a painter until she picks up brush and paint, so a teller is not a teller until he tells a story. Don't give into your fears that you might not know all the rules or you might do it wrong. There's a new book right now that is being promoted as THE BOOK to give THE rules of storytelling. Don't you believe it. Suggestions, guidelines, ethical discussion- those things are all good. Don't get too concerned in the beginning about breaking rules. For me, the "rules" of storytelling are more like pools of refreshing water than pits of unforgiving lava anyway.

Maybe you've been hesitant about telling stories. Maybe you've been waiting for a '"sign" to tell you to start. I am happy today to be your sign-bearer. Jump in and start telling.

It’s fun for me to read the search words that people use to find Storyteller.net with search engines. All hail the Google. In the last few days, I’ve seen things like: storyteller, king midas, business speech, hospital shop, lodging for storytelling convention and audio stories. This afternoon there was a search for "nubile girls" and we came up in the top ten. Sorry, you will have to go GOOGLE that to see which article in our site came up with that keyword. Actually an easier way is to go to the ARTICLES link on our site, type in whatever word you are searching for then CLICK on the search button. But I have to warn you, it’s not nearly as scandalous as it sounds. So go forth and Google or Search as your heart desires.

But that leads me to this question: So, what do you know about the Brothers Grimm?

We’re seeing an increase in the searches for variations on the name Grimm. Why? There’s a way-off-the-mark (or so it appears) movie coming out in the U.S. at the end of August that uses the Brothers Grimm as tale-weaving con artists. However, it appears that the movie's pre-release hype is promoting people to find out more about the Grimm fairy tales.

Here is your "Tip of the Week": So arrives now the opportunity in your classrooms, libraries, homes and wherever else you Tell to develop some programming, displays and new tales to go along with this apparently renewing interest in the J&W Grimm Brothers. If it’s hitting the search engines now, the Grimm interest might be pretty heavy in a few weeks. Perhaps for the brief time that the Grimms will be of interest to popular culture you might spark some long-term interest in story and literature.

If you do the search in the Articles section of Storyteller.net, you’ll find four articles that deal with the Grimm Brothers, two of which are rather in-depth. We’ll be building more Grimm Brothers materials over the next month including a new CD that I am releasing. Please come pay us a visit. Feel free to Google us if you’d like.

Okay, every now and then I have to say this: The Basic Page listing at Storyteller.net is a FREE page. Yes, the Premium Page costs a whopping $25 per year. The Basic Page is FREE. I get these notes sometimes from people who "yell" at me telling my the basic page isn't free, ".....Cuz there's no such thing as a FREE LUNCH!!!"LOL. At the Storyteller.net site, there are free pages for tellers. There are free articles, there are fee stories, there are free tips.If you want to learn more, then take one of the new (TeleCourses). Keep checking back and enjoy the free stuff. No, really. Enjoy it.

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About Me

Sean has been engaged with storytelling and communication since
1986 and probably before that. He started his work by accidentally using active storytelling to
convert a classroom of slightly (but comically) homicidal 8th-grade
teenagers from angry kids to storytelling practitioners themselves. From
then on, both the kids and Sean were sold on the influence of a great
story.

From kids in classrooms to bosses in boardrooms, he has taught the art of storytelling to thousands of people since 1986. With the big jobs of creating workshops for some of the best-known companies to the intimate work of writing "how to" books for parents and fatherhood programs. Sean's deep immersion into the art of storytelling helps you communicate with great clarity.

Along with his many coaching and training duties, he is an author and accomplished performance storyteller adventuring across borders and ocean waves to share his stories and training. Sean is the director of one of the oldest and most diverse storytelling websites at Storyteller.net.

Recently released "Apples for the Princess: A Fairytale About Kindness and Honesty" in a children's book. Find it at Amazon.